a level politics socialism essay questions

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How to answer the 30 Mark Essay Question (Edexcel)

Note: This guidance should not be treated in any way as official Pearson Edexcel guidance.

There are four 30 Mark Essay Questions in the three 2-hour exams that you will take at the end of your A-Level course. This means 120 marks, 48% of all available, will be awarded based on the 30 Mark Essay Question. For this reason, it is really important that you are able to tackle it correctly. This post builds upon the following post on the Assessment Objectives:

What are the Assessment Objectives in Edexcel A-Level Politics?

You may also find the posts on the different Assessment Objectives useful:

What is AO1 and how do you achieve it? (Edexcel)

What is AO2 and how do you achieve it? (Edexcel)

What should the overall structure of the 30 Mark Essay Question look like?

It is important to note that there are no set criteria for what a 30 Mark Essay should look like. Examiners are not allowed to look for a certain template. However, this does not mean that there are not ways to approach the question that are better suited to meeting all of the assessment objectives.

The two broad options are:

• A For and Against Approach

A candidate could choose a traditional for and against approach, whereby they start by considering arguments for the statement and then consider the arguments against it. The candidate can then weigh up the arguments and come to a conclusion. This approach can be tempting to students because it is familiar (in may be used on other subjects and have been used in GCSE exams) and because it is simple.

The problem with this approach is that while it may allow candidates to show off their knowledge to the examiner (thereby scoring high AO1 marks), candidates are less likely to be effectively develop this knowledge into AO1 and AO2.

For 30 Mark Essay questions the marks are weighted equally across all three Assessment Objectives and all need to be given equal consideration.

2. A Thematic Approach

Consequently, the best approach for a candidate to take will be a thematic approach. Candidates should look for themes which allow them to consider the arguments in favour of the statement and those that are contrary to it. This enables candidates to develop arguments (achieving AO2) and to come to substantiated judgements (achieving AO3). Importantly, AO3 will be possible throughout the essay, rather than candidates simply relying on their final conclusion. The 2023 Examiners Report made clear that this was still a key area for improvement for students:

‘ Essay questions were generally structured well, but we are still seeing AO3 as the weakest AO across the board’. (Paper 1 Examiners Report – 2023) ‘ Essay questions were generally structured well looking to develop a real sense of debate that engaged with the question. There is still a need to develop a stronger sense of A03 – realistically the reader should be able to write the conclusion in their head having read the essay, and it should match the conclusion written by the candidate’. (Paper 2 Examiners Report – 2023) See bottom for acknowledgement.

The following partial response from the 2022 examination report highlights effective interim judgements (mini-conclusions):

What then should the general structure of an essay look like?

Whilst there will be some essays in which a different approach should be taken, generally a general structure should look as below. For illustration purposes, the following Exemplar Question has been used – Evaluate the extent to which direct democracy is unhelpful in Liberal Democracy (30 Marks).

• Introduction : An introduction to an A-Level Politics essay has three purposes. Firstly, it sets the tone for your essay and for the examiner reading it. Examiners read many exams per day and, frankly, some of what they read will not be very good. Starting in a positive way is really important and gets them interested in your answer. Showing off some knowledge and being able to define any key terms will also help to do this. Secondly, it should lay out the things you will discuss in your essay. By the end of your introduction the examiner should have a clear idea of what your essay will look like. Finally, your introduction should set out the argument that you are going to be putting forward in your essay.

A way to structure this is to remember the mnemonic D.T.A:

D – Define any key terms and describe the issue in the question

T – Set out the themes/things you are going to be discussing in your essay

A – Set out the argument you are ultimately going to be presenting throughout your essay.

Introduction example

Direct Democracy refers to a system in which citizens decide directly on policies themselves. In Britain, one example of Direct Democracy is the use of referenda. To answer this question the following needs to be considered: the tyranny of the majority, the dangers of populism, the problems of the representative system and public engagement. Ultimately, although representative democracy has its faults, direct democracy is too easily infiltrated by Populism that can lead to decisions being made that are not in the national interest.

The following introduction was highlighted in the 2022 examiners report as being strong:

2. Three x Body Sections : You should aim for three sections, each focusing on a particular theme. Within this, you should look explore a point and a counterpoint. At the end of each section, you need to come to a judgement (often called a mini-conclusion). It is essential you are making judgements throughout your essay and not just leaving it to the conclusion. In recent exam series Examiners Reports have highlighted the importance of this. You should also look to prioritise your arguments, with your best arguments used first. This means if you run out of time you are doing so on your weakest section. There isn’t a set way to structure within the paragraph, but mnemonic that students have found helpful is:

P.E.A.C.E – Point, Evidence, Analysis, Counterpoint, Evaluation.

Section Example

One reason that it could be argued that more direct democracy should be deployed in the UK is because it encourages participation in the political process. Recent developments of direct democracy in the UK have had the impact of increasing participation in British politics. For example, the e-petitions process has led to public opinion on key political issues being clearly shown – for instance when 6.1 million people signed a petition calling for Brexit to be abandoned. This might influence the policies of political parties (for example the Lib Democrats chose to run on a manifesto of abandoning Brexit). In addition, recent referendums have resulted in significant turnout such as the Scottish Independence Referendum (84%) and the EU Referendum (72%). Increased participation is significant for the political process as it makes any decision that is eventually taken more legitimate. This means that, in terms of increasing participation, direct democracy should be encouraged wherever possible in the UK.

On the other hand direct democracy arguably puts too much power in the hands of people who are not politically well-informed and therefore might not make decisions in the interests of the country. People can be too easily swayed by populism and self-interest. This was seen in the Brexit Referendum of 2016 which was emotionalised and arguably people did not fully understand what they were voting for. It is notable that the most googled term on the day after the Brexit Referendum was ‘what is the EU’. Further to this, not everyone has equal interest in Politics. Direct democracy gives equal say to those with little to no interest as those who have intense interest.  This can lead to political positions in which there is more activism taking precedence at the expense of more moderate positions. This delegitimises the decisions that are taken as they are defined by levels of interest, not levels of expertise. Ultimately, whilst direct democracy may increase participation it does so at the expense of direct expertise at an issue. Whilst representative democracy can be frustrating, it allows for an educated political class to make decisions about complex issues. Therefore, it should be argued that the use of Direct Democracy should be limited.

This example from the 2022 Examiner’s Report shows a candidate looking at both sides of the argument before coming to a considered judgement:

3. Conclusion : The purpose of a conclusion is to summarise your arguments, to compare their relative strengths and come to a clear overall judgement. You shouldn’t be adding any extra information in your conclusion, new material should be in the body of your essay. In addition, try not to make it a binary issue, try to consider the extent to which you are making your judgement. Remember, the command word in the question is ‘Evaluate’, this means examiners want you to place a level of value on the statement you are being asked to consider.

A way to structure this is to remember the mnemonic J.A.R:

J – Make sure you start the conclusion with a clear overall judgement on the question.

A – What is the potential alternative to the judgement that you have come to.

R – Return to your judgement and explain why you have decided it is superior to the alternatives.

Conclusion example

There can be no doubt that, although appealing in principle, direct democracy is deeply flawed. In order to make an issue accessible for ordinary systems it has to be simplified, often to the point that it no longer reflects the realities of the issue in question. However, direct democracy can sometimes play a role in supplementing direct democracy, for example, petitions are a useful way of alerting representatives to the issues that matter to their constituents. Yet, ultimately, although limited direct democracy can support a representative system, the normalisation of its use on deciding big issues is dangerous and can lead to political confusion.

The following was highlighted in the 2022 examiners report as being part of a Level 5 essay:

Frequently asked questions

Q. Do I have time to plan my answer?

Yes, and you really must do so. Planning your answer is important and will save you time throughout your essay. It also allows you to prioritise your argument and be sure which side of the debate you are going to fall down on.

During exams it can be disconcerting to see other candidates scribbling away. However, if you were able to stop and just watch, you would notice that those candidates who do not effectively plan their answer take lots of pauses and thinking time during their exam. Effectively planning your essay can actually save you time.

Q. How long should this take?

You will have around 45 minutes to complete this in your final exams. However, do not worry if it is taking much longer to do this at the moment. It always does and any former A-Level student will tell you it just takes time to get confident under the exam conditions. (That said, practice helps significantly!).

Q. I’ve been told I need to use synoptic points ?

There is a requirement to use synoptic points in the 30 Mark Essay Paper for Paper 2: UK Government. You do not need to do this for Paper 1: UK Politics. The essay question will have this intruction:

In your answer you should draw on relevant knowledge and understanding of the study of Component 1: UK Politics and Core Political Ideas. You must consider this view and the alternative to this view in a balanced way.

However, do not panic about this. An answer that does not do this cannot reach Level 5 (although few answers will reach Level 5 anyway and you do not necessarily need to reach Level 5 to achieve an A* grade). But, Politics is an inherently synoptic subject and you are likely to be doing this anyway. Just leave time to check at the end of your paper that you have done so.

Some students even underline their synoptic points to highlight them to the examiner. You do not have to this, but there is no harm in doing so.

Q. How important is political terminology?

You should deploy political terminology wherever you can, and some political terminology will make you stand out. For example, you might refer to elective dictatorship or populism. However, remember that political terminology also refers to any language a non-politics student would not know, so you are using political terminology all the time.

Q. What does a strong response look like?

One of the best ways to see strong responses, or strong elements of responses, is to look at the material shared by the board in their Examiners’ Reports. These are linked here: Edexcel Past Papers – Politics Teaching .

In 2022, the board published the following resource .

Full Exemplar Answers can be found here: Exemplar Answers .

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments below.

Copyright : Any copyrighted material in this article is used under the fair use provisions of Section 32 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988). Unless otherwise indicated, all material is freely accessible on https://qualifications.pearson.com/ .

2023 Examiners Reports:

Paper 1 – https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/secure/silver/all-uk-and-international/a-level/politics/2017/exam-materials/9pl0-01-pef-20230817.pdf?144156492690031

Paper 2 – https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/secure/silver/all-uk-and-international/a-level/politics/2017/exam-materials/9pl0-02-pef-20230817.pdf?844852502034141

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2 responses to “how to answer the 30 mark essay question (edexcel)”.

Does writing 2 very detailed paragprahs instead of 3 less detailed paragraphs cap your marks? Thank you 🙂

There is no cap the examiners automatically reply. If within those two paragraphs there is both depth and breadth (coverage of a range of issues surrounding the question) you could still do very well.

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Differing Views and Tensions Within Socialism

Revolutionary socialism.

Many early socialists were worried that they were far away from power and that they would be prevented achieving their aims by a capitalist conservative establishment.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels discussed a ‘proletarian revolution’ whereby the class-conscious working class would rise up against capitalism and overthrow it.

The first actual example of this was in Russia in 1917 , although this was more of a coup (overthrow of the government) by an armed group- Lenin and the Bolsheviks- rather than a mass class revolt. It was, however, an example to other revolutionary socialists of what could be achieved.

Revolutionary tactics were attractive to socialists for two reasons. Firstly, industrialism and capitalism in the 19th century were producing mass poverty and social inequality, so the working classes wanted a chance to change their circumstances. Secondly, the working classes had very few alternatives to revolution- there was no real representation or way of engaging in political life. In monarchies, the country was dominated by royalty and privilege. In constitutional democracies, the vote was restricted. A revolution was the only viable way of achieving socialist goals.

Revolutionary socialists also believe that the state is a device of class oppression, acting for ‘capital’ against ‘labour’.This means that the political state will always reflect and preach the interests of the property-owning classes. Therefore, in order to build socialism, the ‘bourgeois’ state must be overthrown, resulting in a total transformation of society. This would be the only way of ensuring the revolution would succeed.

Revolutionary socialism has been seen through the establishment of the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. In each case, the existing order was overthrown and replaced with a one-party state which controlled the economy. Opposition was removed and totalitarian methods were used to remove dissent. The credibility of revolutionary socialism was damaged by the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s/early 1990s .

Social democracy

Social democracy developed during the early twentieth century and really began to become accepted in the years after 1945 .It uses socialist principles but has different aims and methods to that of revolutionary socialism. After Britain and other Western nations recovered from the traumas of World War Two the poorer parts of society, supported by many who were better off, demanded more from their state. Many people felt that not only should they be better supported by the nation for the work and services they provided but also that society as a whole would benefit from a raise in living standards created by the state.

The foundations for social democracy are based upon moral thinking- the idea that socialism is the ethically right thing to do in a civilised world. Social democracy theorists claim that as humans want to be good then a socialist way of acting is the only moral solution in how society should be developed. People such as William Morris used humanist ideas to support social democracy (humanism is an idea that says that the satisfaction of all peoples needs should be a priority of society).

Christians have also supported social democracy because they claim that all people are created by God equal and should therefore be supported by each other and society. People such as Tawney supported social democracy because he claimed that it supported people against the problems of unregulated capitalism.

Social democrats supported their ideas with the principle of social justice ; the idea that people should have a greater equality of wealth and therefore opportunity as this is the only fair way to run a society.

The goals of revolutionary socialism were seen by social democrats as too extreme because they wanted to completely reorder society and remove capitalism, which was viewed as irredeemable (cannot be made good).However, by the twentieth century some socialists had come to believe that these views were inaccurate. People such as Eduard Bernstein advocated evolutionary socialism which argued that Marxism needed revising or adapting ( revisionism ).

Revisionists argued several main ideas. They claimed that capitalism had not been shown to be collapsing and was not necessarily doomed (as predicted by Marx), but it needed to be used for the whole of society.

They also argued that the divisions between class outlined by Marx (bourgeoisie and proletariat) were too simplistic, as business ownership was widening as a result of the ability to buy and sell stocks and shares and a growing class of technical and professionally skilled workers. Therefore, the divide and the need for revolution was not so straightforward.

Bernstein argued that capitalism could be reformed and made to work for the good of society through state intervention such as the nationalisation of industry and the creation of legal protections for people, welfare and pensions.This process would create wealth and create a happy and more equal society. The theories of Keynesian economics developed as a result (regulating the economy and attempting to achieve full employment). A more equal society could they believed be created though using the state to redistribute wealth so that the creation of profit benefitted all involved.

As a result, socialists such as Crosland in The Future of Socialism argued that socialism should focus on several values. It should be achieved through a democratic process because it did not need to overthrow capitalism. He claimed that the state should follow ‘managerial socialism’. This meant that private property was permissible, but the state would manage the economy to ensure fairness for all using powers of economic intervention such as progressive taxation and nationalisation.

After __1945 __social democracy seemed to have triumphed because it combined the economic drive of capitalism with fairness and equality without extremism. However, this success did not last. Many thought that the compromise between socialism and capitalism was always unstable and unworkable and therefore would quickly fall apart.

When capitalist economies were doing well it was possible to use redistribution to create a more equal society. However, when economies started to do badly in the 1970s __there was a direct link between the principle of wealth redistribution was criticised. If the state struggled for money the argument over who should get what caused a problem for social democrats. Another problem was that as economies began to deindustrialise many people did not see themselves as working class. This causes socialist political parties such as the UK Labour Party to have to move away from socialism to get elected in the __mid-1990s .

In addition, in the early __1990s __the main communist nations of Europe collapsed and despite the social democrats having moved away from Marxism this meant that the ideas of socialism were discredited (seem as unrealistic).

In response to the crisis faced by social democracy in the 1980s __and __90s , socialist parties began to move towards ‘neo-revisionism’, also known as the ‘third way’.

The third way attempted to navigate a path between traditional social democracy and free-market neoliberalism.

Key ideas of the third way include:

• Primacy of the market : neo-revisionists reject top-down state intervention and support a dynamic market economy as the best way of generating wealth. A globalised, capitalist economy is therefore accepted
• Value of community and moral responsibility: emphasising that people have moral links and responsibilities to their community, attempting to balance rights with responsibilities
• Society bases on consensus and harmony: to move away from traditional class divisions. Values such as fairness and self-reliance should be promoted
• Social inclusion: emphasis on equality of opportunity to create a meritocracy. Tony Blair, a key figure associated with the third way, suggested that welfare should be a ‘hand up, not a handout’. Welfare should therefore be more specifically targeted at getting people into work, for instance
• Competition/market state: the state should focus on social investment, for instance in education, employment and training, in order to boost economic growth and improve a nation’s standing in the world economy

The third way was electorally successful during the New Labour years and has influences many left-of-centre parties. In the UK however it has been criticised as not containing many socialist ideas, and just being an attempt to win more votes from ‘centre-ground’ voters. The UK Labour Party has since moved away from the third way and back towards more social democratic thinking.

Socialism: A Level Politics Edexcel

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Socialism Edexcel

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Exemplar Essay - Socialists & the Economy: Edexcel AS/A Level Government and Politics

Subject: Government and politics

Age range: 16+

Resource type: Unit of work

Last updated

18 May 2024

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Exemplar Essay: to what extent do socialists agree in their views on the economy? This essay received full marks in internal marking practices (verified by 2 teachers).

Perfect for a revision resource, extending one’s knowledge of socialism, using it to strengthen one’s own essay-writing skills.

Written for Edexcel Government and Politics from the 2017 specification but sufficient for any exam board in content and style.

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this essay is very narrow-minded and has been marked as a D

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• Edexcel 8PL0/9PL0 (2017 Specification)

Exam-Style Essays for A Level Edexcel Politics

Put it all into practice! Prepare for exam success by building AO3 evaluation skills.

• Full range of exam-style 30-and 24-markers represented
• Set A: model answers for students to analyse and compare with their own
• Set B: indicative content to self-mark

Great that there are two sets so that different questions can be used at different stages in the learning without using the same question twice L Tilley, Teacher & Expert Reviewer

... with paired 'Set B' reinforcement test that mirrors the first.

• Flexible use example: Analyse the Set A model answer in class, then assign the Set B essay for homework

Using Set B is vital ... at the end of the course a second test is required S Foster, Lecturer & Peer Reviewer

Question-by-question mirroring:

I particularly liked the examination questions and the explanations , also it was useful to have more source questions as these are quite thin on the ground... it provides a wide range of essential contemporary examples L Ashley, HOD & Peer Reviewer

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What do teachers say about this resource (11106, 11107, 11108, 11156, 11157, 11158).

A brilliant resource! ... It is well set out, meaning I am not having to waste loads of paper when I photo-copy quizzes. It is comprehensive, covering all areas of the course. An ideal revision tool ... As we reach the final weeks of the course, I have been setting a quiz to the class regularly at the starts of lessons. It does not take long to complete and I then give them the answer grid so they can self-mark. It is very useful because the students can see where they have got wrong answers and do revision on those areas ... I have seen nothing else like it. I bought the Word version in case there were errors I would need to correct but I have not come across any... It is comprehensive and fully covers the course. The questions are challenging and not too difficult. A great time-saving resource S Pugsley, HoD & Customer

This resource is very high quality and perfect for teaching A Level Politics . It is very suitable for its target audience as it covers the specification well and reaches its target audience... there are a variety of difficulty questions given, meaning teachers could select the most appropriate for their students. There is a good variety of easier, medium and more challenging questions – a good balance of the three has been achieved... AO2 is covered excellently in the Test questions and the Essays cover AO3 ... Definitely suitable and definitely enhance learning. Great that there are two sets so that different questions can be used at different stages in the learning without using the same question twice ... the Test questions would be great for self/peer assessment. This resource will aid teacher’s planning whilst also giving students more independence in their learning L Tilley, Teacher & Expert Reviewer

very good ... an excellent set of resources to help underline learning, understanding and application. It has clearly been written by somebody who is knowledgeable and has been faithful to the Edexcel content ... I like the range of the questions ... an excellent spread across the course and demonstrate the extent of the knowledge that the students need to have in order to achieve the best marks on the paper. The structure of quiz, test, and essay (as with the UK and Ideologies variants) are consistent and if Teachers are purchasing all three variants, this will greatly aid students and Teachers when planning ... I like the fact the students can see the depth of the US topics. It is very important for the students to be able to delve deeply into this topic but at a pace which works for them. The quizzes are a great entry level topic, the tests are a great step-up, and the essays are good for modelling ... a great set of varied activities D Taborda, Politics Teacher & Peer Reviewer

What do teachers say about this resource? (11708, 11709, 11710, 11711, 11712, 11713)

Good design, good ideas... Good range of activities - multiple choice, short questions and essay activities. Educational value is that multiple choice questions can be used for summative activities and knowledge checking, including revision. Short answer questions can be used as fillers at the end of lessons to check knowledge. Passage questions can be used for both in class assessment and homework. Multiple choice questions can be used as assessments to reduce teachers marking workload over the year ... Multiple choice questions: I would use both sets ... Summative assessment at the end of teaching a unit. So if I’ve just taught democracy I would use the multiple choice test at the end of the unit, and give students a score. If below a certain score I would ask students to spend some independent study time. In my classes I encourage all students to achieve a B grade – 70%. So I would ask students to spend some time on the area revised if they got less than a B ... If they got less than a D 50% of the answers I would then ask students to take the test again after 2 weeks revision ... Using Set B... is vital . This is because at the end of the course a second test is required. At the end of the course I ask students to go through all of the bullet points on the syllabus, and identify which areas they can do without revision (they know it), which areas they can do after some revision (they half know it) and which areas they need input from me from (they don’t know it and I haven’t taught it well enough to them). Revision is then targeted on those latter 2 areas where the majority of students either don’t know an area, who can only do it with some revision. In those areas that require extra revision, after it has been taught, another test is needed. Therefore I would definitely buy set B as a teacher, as well as set A, in order to fully use this resource ... My college runs on providing assessments to students once every two weeks – so there are about 18 assessments per year. This could be a lot of marking if this was all essays. A strength of the multiple choice questions is that they can be used to provide an assessment grade in a different format, which is of more interest to the students, and help reduce teachers marking workload Short answer questions: I am more likely to use these when teaching the unit itself, dipping into the questions when required. They’re the sort of question that I am likely to use as a filler at the end of the lesson. IE – I’ve got 10-15 spare minutes – I’ll get them to do a 4 mark question to round off and check knowledge on the material in the lesson, get students to come up with their best answers, and then check this with what was included in the document... Passage question: These I would use once a week or once every two weeks. In particular, I have 2 1.5 hours lesson and 1 2 hour lesson. The latter focuses on exam technique – I would use the passage question in this longer lesson where we had the time to write it, and then look at it in more detail. I would also set this as a homework as use for a once in 2 week assessment S Foster, Lecturer & Peer Reviewer

Very impressed ... The ideologies part of Paper 1 can sometimes be quite repetitive in terms of questions but also quite heavy in terms of detail and so these quizzes, tests and essays are a fantastic addition to any lesson and/or home learning. I think this can help newer Teachers of Politics plan and effectively assess their students’ progress ... I really like that the ideologies questions and quizzes are extended beyond the textbooks and ensure that the students are thinking very carefully about the importance of the differences within Conservatism, Liberalism and Socialism as well as the similarities. They are also important to show (in the model essays) how some thinkers don’t simply fit in with one strand of their respective ideology but transcend these ... Simply put, they make a difficult concept easier to understand with the way in which they are written. I also like that the indicative content is written in the style of the exam board answer - this is important for consistency ... This covers the specification very well and covers all of the key points, thinkers (in the essays) and strands within each ideology. It is thorough and extremely carefully written D Taborda, Head of Year & Peer Reviewer

The ZigZag Politics suite of resources keeps getting better . The UK Politics quiz, test and essay pack is comprehensive and certainly gives the impression of being never-ending but in a very positive way! I am really impressed with the level of detail and effort that has gone into making this resource and I do believe that it is perfect for all Teachers of Politics but particularly Teachers who are starting with Politics for the first time ... I love the detail of the quizzes and the fact that they are multiple choice (and that the multiple-choice answers are good, sensible answers which could all potentially apply). I think that the tests are well written and although there are no longer any short-answer questions on the papers, these are great to have as a focus for the students at the start of each lesson and to recap on knowledge. It is always welcome to have some model answer attempts and essay questions to add to the question bank and the model answers could be used as a base to develop on ... a range of differing activities which are meaningful, purposeful, and relevant to the course. The quizzes ... are a great and interactive way to get students thinking about what they have studied and how this applies to prior learning. There is a lot to cover in Paper 1 and these help to break that down to manageable chunks. Sometimes, A Level students need simple tasks to get them into a topic – these are perfect! D Taborda, HOY & Peer Reviewer

I liked the resource. it was clear and easy to follow, with a good mixture of knowledge based questions and essay plans/questions ... The indicative content for the exam content split into the different assessment objectives was particularly helpful and something that I think students will engage well with ... Quick knowledge questions which will be really helpful for revision or as part of starter activities in lessons ... Model answers as this unit does not have an abundance of these available ... the exam practice and essay plans especially will help students understand the thought process behind planning an essay ... easy to follow ... very well thought through and easy to use G Mears, Head of Politics & Peer Reviewer

I like the range of materials, particularly the multiple choice ... Short questions make good fillers to be used as the end of lessons. Long essays can be set for homework ... Closely matches the new specification S Foster, Ideologies Teacher & Peer Reviewer

Well researched, comprehensive and varied ... I particularly liked the multiple choice questions that focus on the full range of topic areas ... a teacher can easily set these as a means of assessing a student's knowledge and understanding of content. This resource provides teachers with feddback about students' misconceptions ... the quizzes could be used either as a starter activity or as a plenary. In addition, now that the A-Level is linear, students in the second year of the course could use these as part of their revision M Phillips, Teacher & Peer Reviewer

What do teachers say about this resource? (11876, 11877, 11878, 11879, 11880, 11881)

I liked this resource. It covers this compulsory part of the course well ... I particularly liked the examination questions and the explanations, also it was useful to have more source questions as these are quite thin on the ground ... it provides a wide range of essential contemporary examples ... it has educational value by repeating questions in a different format,which should reassure more challenged pupils,or those who have missed part of the syllabus... It matches the spec well, following the same order and interprets it faithfully L Ashley, HOD & Peer Reviewer

• A Level Edexcel Politics (9PL0)
• A Level Politics Topic Tests
• Differentiated
• Exam-Style Questions
• Paired and Tiered Topic Tests
• Politics Topic Assessment System
• Model answers
• Paper 2: UK Government and Non-Core Political Ideas
• Source questions
• Government and Politics of the USA
• Paper 3A: Comparative Politics